


The Breaking Point

by orphan_account



Category: Jessica Jones (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Jessica Jones, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Implied Childhood Sexual Abuse, Not Canon Compliant, Past Rape/Non-con, Peter Parker Has a Family, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-12
Packaged: 2019-06-26 13:01:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15663735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Every person, super or not, has a breaking point. Tonight, Peter reached his.





	The Breaking Point

Everyone, super or not, has a breaking point. That’s something - or more often some _ one _ \- that makes a person lose all control, all focus. For Steve Rogers, the breaking point was Bucky Barnes. He was willing to lie to Tony for years about Howard and Maria’s deaths to keep Bucky safe. He was willing to almost kill for him. When a superhero reaches their breaking point, it’s supposed to be to protect someone they love. The fact that Skip Westcott is Peter Parker’s breaking point can only mean one thing: he’s selfish. The person Spider-Man is most desperate to save is himself. 

Peter reached his breaking point tonight, and now he’s wandering aimlessly, dead-eyed, through the streets of Hell’s Kitchen at one in the morning. He’s not far from home - though he’s in a completely different borough - but he doesn’t usually come this far on patrol. He shouldn’t have come so far tonight. None of this would be happening if he’d stayed in Queens. Claire Temple finds him - stumbling like he’s got some broken ribs and a seriously jacked up leg - on her way home from work. Not only that, but he’s in a full Spider-Man get-up. Why has God designated her  _ Nurse to Vigilantes _ ?

“Are you okay?” she asks. “You look like you got in one hell of a fight.”   
  
Peter flinches behind the mask.  _ Is it a fight if I attacked and almost killed a man unprovoked?  _ he thinks.  _ Is it a fight if I  _ wanted  _ to feel the life leave his body?  _ She reaches out a soothing hand when he doesn’t answer, and he recoils from it desperately.

“Can you hear me in there?” she asks. When he still doesn’t answer, she shrugs. “I guess I’ll let you be the hero if that’s what you want.” She starts to walk away, but the boy’s small voice stops her.

“Please help me,” he pleads. She stops in her tracks and whips back around, shocked to say the least. So Spider-Man is just a kid.

“Jesus. How old are you?”

“Please,” he begs, almost as if he doesn’t hear her.

“Alright. Can you walk with me? I have some friends that might be able to help.”   
  
-

Claire takes him to Trish’s apartment. She figures it will be the least disgusting and most comfortable of her super-friends’ apartments. She texts Jessica and Matt on her way, and all she says it that there’s an emergency. Then it’s just a waiting game. The kid won’t tell her his name. He won’t tell Trish, either, and she’s thoroughly confused and surprised at the spiderling currently sitting on her couch.

Peter is watching them through his mask. They’re standing in the kitchen speaking in hushed voices - though he can pick up everything they’re saying just fine - and he’s lying on his back on the couch. The woman who found him, Claire, tells her friend that she called some people named Jessica and Matt that she thinks can help. Peter wants to tell her to call May, but May is out of town for the week. He wants to tell her to call Tony; Tony would know what to do, but he can’t bring himself to speak. He can only stare into space and wish that this whole night never happened. He feels hot tears run down his cheeks as he remembers.

He saw him leaving a bar on Tenth Avenue, and it was like everything shut down.

‘Karen,’ he whispered, breath hitching. ‘Activate Instant Kill.’

Everything went dark after that, but he sees flashes of himself fighting Skip in an alley, punching him until he was unconscious, and then getting the hell beaten out of him by Skip’s friends. He just stared at his abuser’s closed eyelids from his place on the ground while his friends picked him up and carried him away from Peter. He shuts his eyes tight as if to block out the memory. The doorbell rings, and then a tall girl with black hair and a man wearing dark sunglasses walk in. Peter shrinks further into the couch. There are too many people here, and none of them are talking to him. None of them are Tony. Tony would talk  _ to  _ him, not just  _ about  _ him.

Finally, after a few minutes of discussing between themselves, they join Peter on the couch. Claire crouches in front of him.

“Hey, kid. I gotta check your injuries, okay? Can you talk to my friends for me about whatever happened tonight? I think they can help you.”

Peter nods slightly and presses down on the spider on his chest to release his suit. Claire helps him pull it off, but he leaves the mask. He doesn’t want them to see his face.

“Hey,” the woman with blonde hair says. She’s the one who lives here, Peter thinks. “I’m Trish. What’s your name?”   
  
Peter doesn’t answer. He just stares at the ground anxiously. He doesn’t want to be so naked in front of strangers.

“It’s okay,” the other woman says. “You can just sit there. Is there someone we can call?”   
  
Claire reaches up for the mask, and Peter flinches with his whole body.

“No!” he protests. “You have to leave the mask!”

“Kid, I gotta make sure you don’t have a head injury.”

“Karen, do a scan of my head. Tell her.” Then the room is filled with the robotic voice of the AI.

“All seems to be alright!” Karen says in her ever-perky voice. “Although, you seem to be experiencing a considerable amount of distress. Should I call Mr. Stark?”   
  
She says the last part just to Peter, and he hums an affirmative before the built in phone line begins ringing. Tony answers after four or five rings.

“Pete? What’s wrong, kid? It’s one in the -” He cuts himself off before beginning again in a panicked voice. “Holy shit, kid, where are you? This report says you used Instant Kill? Please tell me that was a mistake.”

“Mr. St -” Peter stops himself when he looks up at the people surrounding him. He doesn’t want any unnecessary questions before Tony gets here. He sniffles back his tears and speaks again. “Please can you come pick me up? ‘M sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. Where are you?”   
  
“...Hell’s Kitchen,” he says hesitantly. Tony pauses, but doesn’t berate him like he expected.

“I got you. I’ll be there soon. Don’t move.” Tony hangs up, and Peter finally looks Claire in the eyes.

“Is someone coming to get you?” she asks, sitting down beside him. Her friends are still standing awkwardly around them. Peter nods. “Okay, good. You don’t have to tell me what happened, but it’s okay if you wanna talk about it.” 

He tenses up and shakes his head vigorously. He doesn’t know these people.  _ Not safe!  _ his brain is screaming at him. Claire sighs and stands up, gesturing for her friends to follow. The man with the glasses and the woman who lives here do, and they go to the kitchen. Peter can see Claire digging through a drawer and coming up with a first aid kit. She sets it on the counter and goes to turn on the stove to boil water for tea. The woman with the black hair - Jessica - stays and looks at Peter inquisitively. She stays still for another moment before slowly moving to sit beside him. He doesn’t know what it is about her, but he doesn’t feel jumpy. He doesn’t flinch away. She doesn’t try to touch him.

“Hey,” she says quietly but flatly. “I’m Jessica.”

She doesn’t say anything else, and she looks away after she says it. Peter looks up from his fidgeting hands and lets his eyes fall on her face. He just stares at her for a minute.

“I’m Peter,” he whispers, and a small smile tugs at Jessica’s mouth. “My dad’s coming to get me now. He’ll know what to do, right?”

“I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you the answer to that,” she says. “Most of the time dads don’t know what the hell they’re doing, do they?”

“He’ll know,” Peter says firmly, and now she’s really smiling.

“Well, you know him better than me.” It’s silent for another moment, and they can hear the kettle whistling in the kitchen. “I’m gonna be honest, kid; you don’t seem like the fighting type. I’m just gonna guess here, and you can tell me if I’m right. Or not, whatever. You saw someone you didn’t want to see tonight?”

“How could you possibly know that?” Peter asks defensively, and Jessica shrugs.

“I’m a private investigator. It’s my job to know.” Jessica waits. Peter pauses.

“I almost killed someone tonight,” he admits quietly. It feels like he’s admitting it to himself for the first time. Then, even quieter, “I wish I would have.”

“It’s okay, Peter,” she says seriously, voice betraying emotion for the first time in their conversation. “Everyone has a breaking point. You know, I killed someone once.”

“How do you live with yourself?”

“I felt terrible at first,” Jessica says. “I hated him, but I didn’t think I’d ever stoop that low. But I know now that killing him didn’t make me a bad person. He was the bad person. I’m a good person who did a bad thing. He hurt a lot of people.”

“But my person only hurt me. It was selfish for me to want to hurt him.”   
  
“Hey, I didn’t say I killed him  _ because  _ he hurt a lot of people. I killed him because he hurt  _ me.  _ It was selfish, and it was wrong, but it still doesn’t define me. And you stopped yourself, which already makes you a good person.” Neither of them say anything else. There’s nothing else to be said.

A minute later, the doorbell rings, Trish answers, and Peter hears Tony’s panicked voice. He relaxes immediately, though he feels awful for worrying Tony. It’s going to be okay.


End file.
